Ed Koch: Romney was 'in bounds' criticizing embassy statement

9/14/12 12:44 PM EDT

Former New York City Mayor Ed Koch, who became a President Obama supporter after some courting by the president's team — and after some strong public denouncements of his Mideast policies — strongly defended Mitt Romney for the remarks criticizing the Cairo mission statement about violence in Egypt.

In an interview with POLITICO, Koch — a Mideast hawk who was recently hospitalized during the Democratic Party platform fight over language relating to Jerusalem as Israel's capital — said he is "still on the [Obama] train." But he expressed displeasure with the president on issues related to Israel, and said Romney was within his rights to have criticized the administration when and in the way he did.

"I don't think that Romney said anything bad," he said, adding that the comments he liked the most were from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. "She was really wonderful."

"(Romney) was right about the embassy statement," he said. "The issue itself is in-bounds ... (it is fair) for the GOP candidate to disagree" with the response.

Koch, a popular figure among American Jews who had been expected to go to Florida to campaign for Obama, insisted the only thing that would keep him from doing it now is his health, and logistical troubles he has getting around now.

But he added that while he's still backing Obama, "I am distressed that they did not put back all of the language that was" removed from the 2008 platform about Jerusalem.

"I'm very distressed with what is happening," he went on, saying, 'I do not believe it could have been changed (the first time, removing the language) without White House approval."

Obama's aides have said he ordered the language to be restored, a day after the flap broke through the noise of the convention in Charlotte and into headlines elsewhere.

He also faulted Obama over the report that the White House turned down a requested meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has all but endorsed Mitt Romney (the White House denied that sequence of events).

But he added he believes the platform issue will negatively impact Obama in states like Florida: "That's got to inflame people who are supporters of Israel."

The assumption among many operatives is the feelings about where Obama is on Israel and the Mideast is essentially hardened in voter sentiment at this point. Still, Koch is publicly criticizing his chosen candidate at this stage of the game, and as the situation in the Mideast is still erupting in violence today.